1. Who We Are
This privacy policy explains how READ Advisors Limited ("READ Advisors", "we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects personal data.
READ Advisors Limited is a company registered in England & Wales, company number 9941437, with its registered office at 153 Hamlet Gardens, London W6 0TR, United Kingdom.
We are the "data controller" of the personal data described in this policy for the purposes of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Contact: privacy@readadvisors.com
2. What Personal Data We Collect
We collect personal data about prospective and existing investors, professional contacts, and business partners, including:
- Identity and contact data: name, job title, company name, email address, telephone number.
- Professional/investment data: areas of investment interest, asset classes, and communications you have with us regarding advisory services, funds, or deals.
- Data submitted through LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms: when you respond to one of our LinkedIn Sponsored Content advertisements and submit a Lead Gen Form, LinkedIn shares with us the information contained in that form (typically name, email address, job title, company name, and any other fields you complete).
- Correspondence data: the content of emails, meeting notes, and other communications between you and READ Advisors.
- Technical data: where you interact with our website, we may collect limited technical data (e.g. IP address, browser type) as described in our Cookie section below.
We do not knowingly collect personal data from children, and our services are directed at business professionals only.
3. How We Collect Personal Data
- Directly from you, when you contact us, subscribe to our newsletter, attend an event, or engage our advisory services.
- Via LinkedIn, when you submit a Lead Gen Form in response to one of our advertisements. Our use of this data is subject to LinkedIn's own Lead Gen Data Processing Terms in addition to this policy.
- From publicly available professional sources (e.g. LinkedIn profiles, company websites) in the ordinary course of business development and relationship management.
- From third parties who introduce us to prospective investors, with their consent.
4. How We Use Your Data and Our Legal Basis
We process personal data for the following purposes:
- To respond to enquiries and provide investment advisory and placement services (basis: performance of a contract / steps prior to entering a contract).
- To send you relevant private-markets content, event invitations, and our investor newsletter (basis: legitimate interests in business development and direct marketing to professional contacts, or consent where required — you may opt out at any time).
- To maintain accurate records of our relationships with investors and prospects in our CRM (basis: legitimate interests in managing our business relationships).
- To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including anti-money-laundering and know-your-client requirements where applicable (basis: legal obligation).
5. Where Your Data Is Stored and Who Processes It
Personal data we collect is stored in our customer relationship management system, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Microsoft Dataverse, hosted by Microsoft.
We use artificial intelligence tools — specifically models provided by Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI — to assist with tasks such as drafting communications, summarising interactions, and organising records within our CRM. Where personal data is processed by these tools, it is done under contractual terms with those providers that restrict their use of the data to providing the service to us, and it is not used by those providers to train their general-purpose models.
We use Microsoft 365 for email and calendaring, and LinkedIn's advertising platform to run Sponsored Content and Lead Gen Form campaigns.
Each of these providers acts as a data processor on our instructions, under a data processing agreement, and is contractually required to protect your data to a standard consistent with UK GDPR.
6. International Transfers
Some of our service providers (including Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, and LinkedIn) may process personal data on servers located outside the UK and European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where this occurs, we rely on appropriate safeguards recognised under UK GDPR, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the provider's own adequacy certifications.
Because our investor base includes contacts based in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, we may also send or receive personal data to and from contacts in that region in the ordinary course of managing our relationship with you. We take reasonable steps to ensure such transfers are conducted securely and, where local data protection law applies to you (for example under UAE or Saudi Arabian data protection legislation), in a manner consistent with those requirements.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal data for as long as necessary to maintain our business relationship with you, respond to your enquiries, and comply with applicable legal, tax, and regulatory retention requirements. Where you ask us to stop contacting you, we retain a minimal record of that request to ensure we honour it.
8. Your Rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:
- Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
- Request correction of inaccurate data.
- Request erasure of your data, in certain circumstances.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing (you can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link in any email).
- Request restriction of processing, or data portability, in certain circumstances.
- Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@readadvisors.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe we have not handled your data properly.
9. Cookies
Our website may use strictly necessary cookies required for the site to function, and — where you arrive via a LinkedIn advertisement — the LinkedIn Insight Tag or similar conversion-tracking technology, which allows us to measure the effectiveness of our LinkedIn campaigns. Where non-essential cookies or tracking technologies are used, we will provide a cookie notice allowing you to accept or decline them in accordance with UK PECR requirements.
10. Security
We maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse, including access controls, encryption in transit, and restricting data access to personnel who need it to perform their role.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision. Material changes will be notified to you where appropriate.